Grilled Ranch Pork Chops & Cucumber Tomato Salad

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Yesterday, after football had kicked off with a loss for both the Cardinals and the Wildcats, I asked Mr. Hungry if he felt weird watching football while parts of the country were enduring Irma. I mean I could care less who was playing or if the Wildcats or Cardinals won. It still felt weird to watch football while scrolling through my twitter feed getting updates on Irma. For all those affected by both Irma and Harvey, we continue to pray for you. The weird thing is though, for those of us relatively unaffected. Life goes on as normal, including getting ready for a new week. I think that crazy weird if you ask me, but it is what is right?

I’m trying out changing my recipe photography schedule to Fridays and Sundays, so I’m not running around during the week trying to get ingredients together and take photos. It feels too chaotic, I would prefer the week be reserved for Hungry Hobby RD clients, Designed To Fit Clients and students. So, yesterday I shot a pumpkin version of my coconut flour pancakes, my most popular recipe here at HH! Since I won’t be shooting recipes during the week, I couldn’t rely on recipe production for food. So I made three batches of the pancakes for a breakfast meal prep. I think the “meal prep” craze is kind of funny actually. Meal prep can be crazy and take you your whole damn weekend if you want it to. But, if you think about isn’t meal prep just making a bunch more of the recipe so you can eat leftovers and not have to cook again? I put the leftovers of this recipe in square containers for Mr. Hungry, it made three lunches for him in addition to what we ate for dinner.

I used to spend hours in the kitchen making food for the week. Nowadays, I’m not a huge fan of spending hours in the kitchen just to “meal prep” and then not eat. However, when I cook food, I make enough that it will last a few days ya know? If it’s convenient I might throw something else in the oven/instant pot/etc because I’m already in the kitchen anyway. Like yesterday I made some veggies for Mr. Hungry’s lunch while I was waiting for pancakes to be ready because I could only make 3 at a time. The biggest thing for me is that the effort has to equal the reward, and the reward is not cooking or doing dishes for a while. You know how I feel about dishes, so that’s why I included steps below to make this a “one dish meal.” Basically, I’m not counting the zip lock bag used to marinate the pork chops or the grill. We just clean the grill every time we start it up again so that doesn’t count. So then you have the bowl needed to hold the salad in and the cutting board. I’ve been using these disposable cutting boards that Mr. Hungry’s Grandma gave me which makes this a one dish meal for me. I realize you probably use a normal cutting board, so this is two dish meal then. Still pretty minimal if you ask me!

Alright, let’s go do the Monday thing, tackle the to do lists and all the things!

Instructions

To make the pork chops:

Place pork chops in a large Ziploc bag with buttermilk and add in seasonings. Mine were frozen so I just turned them occasionally when I went to the fridge as they defrosted. Marinate for at least 24 hours.

Preheat grill to 500F and grill pork chops to a minimum internal temperature of 145F.

I felt super weird going about my regular weekend yesterday with Hurricane Irma happening. I like your approach to meal prep. I don’t usually spend a lot of time on it, but will make a big dinner with plenty of leftovers on Sunday. I also chop veggies and maybe boil eggs while I’m making dinner to have for the week. I more meal plan, so I can make quick meals when I am short on time and am not having to run to the store every other day.Emily @ Pizza & Pull-ups recently posted…Weekend recap – All the breakfast

I have to admit, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever cooked pork chops, they’re a protein I didn’t eat much growing up so I always kind of forget about them. But these sound so good! And I’m with you on the meal prep, if I’m already in the kitchen, I try to knock out as much as possible and find things to make so I enjoy it.

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Hungry Hobby is a daily food and fitness log where Registered Dietitian Kelli Shallal shares fun healthy recipes, nutrition and fitness tips and a little bit of life. Read More…

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